Radiopharmaceuticals are radioactive materials that are widely used in the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases and body disorders. Radiopharmaceuticals are typically injected into the body of a patient by means of a hypodermic syringe. The repeated exposure to radioactive materials may over time present serious health hazards to the person dosing and administering the injection. This hazard is a result of radiation emanating from radioactive material which is to be injected.
One of the exposure risks occurs during the dosing procedure occurs when a specialized dose is prepared from a larger storage container of the radiopharmaceuticals by drawing the dose from the storage container into a syringe and while manipulating the syringe to prepare it for injecting and injecting into the patient. For example, the technician's upper extremities can receive a significant dose of radiation during the time the syringe is unshielded.
Accordingly, what is needed is an apparatus, preferably an entirely self contained and shielded apparatus, that may be used to prepare doses of radiopharmaceutical medicines into syringes without requiring a technician to directly touch or be involved in the dosing procedure. What is further needed is a sub structure of such an apparatus that can receive a syringe and perform all the necessary operations to remove the dose from a larger storage container without the need for manual intervention from a technician.